In software products designed for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, data objects are stored within structured objects. In this case, the data objects may relate to various areas within a company such as, for example, client data, factory structures, machine structures, production sequences, lists of materials, lists of staff and many others. Data objects comprising company data may be referred to as “business objects.” The structure of data objects may be predetermined by real conditions within the company and for maintenance. The data objects may simulate these real structures.
The contents of the data objects may represent the current state of each particular company structure being mapped within the objects and thus allow computer-aided planning, maintenance and the operation of a company with the aid of ERP software.
Data objects can be interlinked and represent an entire company network in an object structure which may be hierarchical. The mesh of objects should thus represent the actual structure of the company as far as possible.
In order to search for information within the data objects, the user requires a user-friendly user interface as well as fast and reliable access to the data. With conventional search engines, such as those available on the Internet, for example, document-like objects are almost exclusively displayed. These document-like objects, for example, text documents, are structured only slightly and can be searched with the aid of simple algorithms. The content of the text documents can be indexed automatically in most cases. The search engines access the created index during their search. However, they can also execute a full text search.
During the search, the keyword being sought may be searched for in the index or in the full text. In the event of a match, a link to the corresponding text document may be output. The user may then directly access the text document via this link.
Data objects may also comprise text documents that are not stored within a flat document structure but instead are stored as structured data objects. In this case, it is nearly impossible to search within these structured data objects with acceptable response times and good search results using conventional search engines alone. Since the user himself generally does not know the structure of the data objects, the search for information frequently requires considerable effort.
Certain embodiments of the present invention address the need for tools for searching within structured data objects with the aid of conventional search algorithms. Certain embodiments of the present invention also may address the need to map structured data objects in a fashion readable by conventional search engines, while some embodiments may address the need to facilitate indexing of such structured data objects, allowing more flexible options in searching structured data objects.